As the North East enjoys the second biggest visitor growth in the country, Barbara Hodgson talks to Whitley Bay author Ann Cleeves whose hit creation Vera is doing its bit for North East tourism

Ann Cleeves has a lovely story to tell about a recent chance meeting with a Vera fan.

The creator of the fictional detective who inspired ITV’s hugely popular series had set off to go babysitting just as a van happened to be driving past.

It pulled in and its driver leaned out to greet her, telling how his daughter - with him in the van - was a huge fan of Vera and he had driven her up from Birmingham as a birthday treat so she could visit some of the locations used in the series.

Their visit perhaps wasn’t surprising given that the beautiful local beauty spots - most of them in Northumberland - have become as much a star of the drama as TV favourite Brenda Blethyn who plays its lead but recognising Ann was unexpected.

But it’s a sign of a true fan and the best-selling author, who lives in Whitley Bay, has masses of them.

“He’d driven his daughter here to see Vera locations for her 18th birthday present,” said Ann and she added that the teenager was in for an even bigger treat when she told the series’ production team what had happened.

They asked whether she could track down the teenager and, via social media, she did.

“And they invited her to come onto the set to watch,” said Ann. “Isn’t that kind?”

Over the years the Vera team have become like family, said Ann - although producers and directors do change - and Blethyn is now a friend, a very supportive one who will join Ann whenever she can at the many crime writing festivals she is asked to appear at.

“She comes to support me which is lovely,” she said. “We get on really well; she’s great company.”

The phenomenal success of Vera - series six is currently being filmed around the region - means that those North East locations are being seen and admired on the other side of the world.

Besides English-speaking countries such as Australia, the US and Canada, the drama is now a hit in Scandanavian countries, which are famous for their own unique brand of crime fiction.

“So they’re seeing all round Northumberland,” said Ann who writes a book every other year which are immediately snapped up.

“And it’s now going really well in Germany and is dubbed into French.” They used such a realistic Brenda Blethyn-sounding voice that those who heard it told the actress she had a good French accent.

“They got somebody who sounded pretty close to Brenda to dub it,” said Ann.

She has such a good relationship with the production team that they get to see her Vera manuscripts before they are even published - which can be a year later.

“I’m just very lucky. They’re like an extended family; they’re a joy to work with.”

The team come up before the start of each series to check out new locations to shoot and they - and Blethyn - often visit Ann’s home to enjoy one of her husband’s popular curries.

“I suggest places they might like to see and I go around with them if I can,” she said.

“I’ll say ‘this is what I was thinking of when I wrote this’ and sometimes they use it.”

Actors Kenny Doughty and Brenda Blethyn on the set of Vera At Coquet street Chopwell

In the new series, due to air next year, North Shields Fish Quay will be making its appearance in episode four.

However, Ann has no say over the scripts based on her stories and can find that even the sex of a character has been changed for TV.

She said: “There are four different script writers in the series so they might come fresh to the character and haven’t always read the book; they might only have seen previous series.

“I don’t have any control at all.

“What they do keep very much is the central character and it’s great that on set Brenda Blethyn is fiercely protective of her.

“Her view is close to my own.

“I think because she read the book before she started playing her, she has a very set idea about her and it’s great she’s so protective.

“With some things in the script she’ll say ‘I don’t think she would say this to this person’ and it’s always in keeping with my Vera.”

Ann added: “But Brenda is much more glamorous than my character. Mine had trouble with eczema on her legs and always wore dreadful stockings and things.”

The best-selling author recently beat the likes of JK Rowling and Ian Rankin to see Vera voted the nation’s favourite detective at the Dead Good Books awards.

She initially based her character on capable, formidable spinsters she remembered from her childhood and her readers liked her creation from the off.

A new Vera novel, The Moth Catcher, is the seventh in the Vera Stanhope series and will have a formal launch in Gateshead in September.

This time her detective faces the tough task of finding connections between two murders in a quiet Northumberland-set community called Valley Farm.

Despite the life her novels now enjoy on TV, Ann doesn’t find herself picturing how the stories will look on screen.

But she said: “Sometimes I heard Brenda’s voice in my head when I am writing dialogue. I’ll think of a marvellous put-down and think ‘Brenda will really enjoy saying that; I hope they’ll keep it in’.”

She alternates a Vera novel with writing one of her Shetland ones every other year.

This crime fiction series has been adapted for BBC with similar success and Ann is in demand at book festivals north of the border too, which is also reaping the benefits of a growing profile and seeing increasing numbers of visitors.

VistEngland recently reported that the North East has enjoyed a higher than the national average boom in visitor numbers with its seven per cent growth the second highest in the country.

And Northumberland locations are among those helping to pull in the crowds.

If Ann’s work helps in any way then she’s delighted.

“I hope so,” she said. She has memories of the days the area’s shipyards were thriving.

“We mightn’t be making ships anymore but we’re making TV.”

And Brenda Blethyn can expect no let-up in Vera’s workload.

“I’m working on a new Shetland book at the moment then I’ll start another Vera book,” said Ann.